Court overturns BD 5,366 ruling

The court overturned a ruling that ordered a man in his sixties to pay 5,366.200 Bahraini dinars in a vehicle rental dispute, after finding that legal notification procedures were invalid.

The High Civil Court of Appeal ruled the original judgment void because court summons were sent to incorrect contact details via SMS and email.

According to case documents, a Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) report confirmed that the mobile number used for notification was registered to an expatriate woman, not the defendant.

The dispute involved a four-year lease agreement for two vehicles.

The defendant’s lawyer, Abdullah Al-Majed, argued that his client had no knowledge of the proceedings at the court of first instance, disputed the authenticity of the contract signatures and said the relevant commercial registration had been cancelled before the case was filed.

He also said there was no legal evidence that the defendant was authorised to act on behalf of the second party, an institution named in the case.

The appeals court cited Article 7 (bis) of the Civil Procedure Code, ruling that proper notification is a fundamental requirement for a fair trial. It said the defective summons deprived the defendant of the right to defend himself, and therefore annulled the original judgment and accepted the appeal.